The Research And Application Of M3UA

With the development and maturation of IP technology, more and more services will be provided via IP network, and the network is the NGN (Next Generation Network) in the future, the core of which is IP transport network. Current network will be converged, especially in the convergence of IP network and telecommunication network, and the soft switch based NGN will be the direction of network development. The problem of IP network inter-working with SCN (Circuit switched Network) will be encountered, and one of the problems needed to be solved is the signaling inter-working, so the gateway which has the function of signaling inter-working need to be found in the boundary between IP network and SCN network. To meet this demand, the SIGTRAN (Signaling Transport) working group of the IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) was especially founded, in charge of designing the standards for transporting SCN signaling over IP networks. SIGTRAN protocol stack of IETF is used to transport SCN signaling protocol over IP network, which is supported by SG (signaling gateway) and MGC (media gateway controller) to accomplish signaling inter-working. In the mobile domain, 3GPP (3^rd Generation Partnership Project) recommended a solution of transporting signaling using M3UA (Message Transfer Part 3 - User Adaptation Layer)/SCTP (Stream Control Transmission Protocol)/EP at the release 4 version, and PRBT (Personal Ring Back Tone) over IP is realized on the basis of it. No matter in the mobile or fixed domain, M3UA is the preferred adaptation layer protocol in the SG and MGC.This paper discusses the signaling inter-working and the relevant protocols of providing PRBT service over IP in the background of NGN. The main context is as follow:1. Analyzing the characteristic and structure of the Next Generation Network, raising the problem of signaling inter-working, and on this base introducing the architecture and function of SIGTRAN protocol stack and SS7 relevant to signaling inter-working.2. Putting emphasis on studying and analyzing M3UA protocol of SIGTRAN, describing its services, functions, message, and message format, and then Introducing the BICC protocol relevant to the implementation of PRBT service.3. Analyzing the main message flow of M3UA, each function module, bringing up an overall architecture of M3UA program based on the idea of modularization, and at the same especially describing the main part of the program such as the processing of timer, ASP/AS state, primitives, and messages of protocol etc.4. Based on the demand of PRBT over IP, describing the relevant background and signaling flow, then giving an implementation of transporting BICC message over IP using M3UA, SCTP and IP.M3UA has a great effect in the inter-working between SCN and IP network, studying which has a practical meaning. M3UA also proves its value in implementing PRBT service over the IP network.